Americans United - Christian Reconstructionistshttp://www.au.org/resources/religious-right/christian-reconstructionists
Christian Reconstructionists believe that America's legal system should be based on the Old Testament. Thus, a variety of moral offenses (homosexuality, adultery, fornication, practicing "witchcraft," blasphemy and so on) would be punishable by death. The leading group in this movement is the Chalcedon Foundation, based in California. Although considered a fringe movement, Reconstructionist ideas have influenced many in the Religious Right.
en‘Monumental’ Mischief: Kirk Cameron’s History Boys Peddle Religious Extremismhttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/%E2%80%98monumental%E2%80%99-mischief-kirk-cameron%E2%80%99s-history-boys-peddle-religious
<a href="/about/people/joseph-l-conn">Joseph L. Conn</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Don’t be misled by Kirk Cameron’s charming smile. It masks a chilling agenda.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Kirk Cameron’s new movie<a href="http://www.monumentalmovie.com/"> “Monumental” </a>gets released tonight in select theaters around the country, and I don’t think it’s going to be a hit with people like you and me.</p><p>Cameron is an actor best known for his role in the ‘80s TV sitcom “Growing Pains.” Today he’s a fundamentalist Christian best known for…well, not much of anything. He made news recently, however, when he went on CNN’s “Piers Morgan” to promote his new film and <a href="http://piersmorgan.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/02/kirk-cameron-on-homosexuality-its-detrimental-and-ultimately-destructive/">wound up bashing</a> gays and gay marriage. (Homosexuality, he said, is “unnatural.... It's detrimental and ultimately destructive to so many of the foundations of civilization.”)</p><p>His remarks produced a well-deserved rebuke from the LGBT community and its allies, but largely overlooked in the discussion was the broader theocratic agenda Cameron seems to be peddling.</p><p>The full film hasn’t been released yet, but the trailers from it and the list of far-right “experts” involved in the production suggest we’re in for more “Christian nation” propaganda.</p><p>Among the cast of characters appearing in the movie is David Barton, the notorious fundamentalist myth-maker whose <a href="http://www.au.org/church-state/julyaugust-2009-church-state/featured/texas-tall-tale">WallBuilders outfit </a>has made a fortune selling Christian-nation claptrap – some of it <a href="http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1374/is_4_69/ai_n32172459/">so bogus even he</a> has come to repudiate it.</p><p>Another featured “expert” is Herb Titus, a law professor so extreme that TV preacher Pat Robertson <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=KoHWWx6PW9MC&amp;pg=PA258&amp;lpg=PA258&amp;dq=pat+robertson++fires+herb+titus&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=0Ae84lGNk-&amp;sig=j9rPDjVNM6LW9ZtabkbCT0uDI-g&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=3dBxT_PlHu3J0AGh0bmfAQ&amp;ved=0CD8Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&amp;q=pat%20robertson%20%20fires%20herb%20titus&amp;f=false">had to can him </a>as head of Regent University Law School. In more recent times, Titus has distinguished himself as<a href="http://wthrockmorton.com/2012/03/10/barton-birther-featured-in-kirk-camerons-new-monumental-movie/"> a B-list birther</a> luminary.</p><p>And, for good measure, we have Marshall Foster, founder of the World History Institute (as well as the now apparently defunct Mayflower Institute). Foster rails <a href="http://www.worldhistoryinstitute.com/2010/11/18/how-the-west-can-again-be-won/">against "post-modern tolerance,"</a> thinks public schools should be shut down and wants everything to be governed by a “biblical worldview,” just as in the days of the Pilgrims and Puritans.</p><p>Foster is “co-writer” of the “Monumental” script. According to online sources, he met Cameron in an airport and the relationship developed from there.</p><p>The theme of the movie seems to be that the Pilgrims came to America seeking religious liberty, and they set up a model Christian community that we ought to emulate today.</p><p>Well, here’s some news, Kirk and Company, the Pilgrims and Puritans did come here seeking religious liberty, but they set up a regime that gave freedom only to themselves, denying it to others. In keeping with its religious viewpoint, Plymouth Colony <a href="http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/History/CrimeAndPunishment.php">prescribed the death penalty </a>for adulterers, homosexuals and witches, whipping for denying the scriptures and a fine for harboring a Quaker.</p><p>Sure, the Pilgrims played an important role in the history of America, but we don’t want to emulate their 17th-century theocracy today. That approach to government is exactly what America’s founders repudiated when they gave us our Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The United States is based on principles of church-state separation, individual freedom, equality and fairness, not anyone’s religion.</p><p>I can harbor a Quaker if I want to.</p><p>I think the thing that troubles me most about Cameron is his growing flirtation with Christian Reconstructionism, the most extreme wing of the Religious Right.</p><p>Unlike most fundamentalists, adherents of this harsh theology aren’t expecting the imminent return of Jesus Christ. Instead they want to take “dominion” and impose a draconian version of “biblical law” on modern-day America for the next thousand years or so. Leading theorists of the movement advocate a rigid patriarchy with the death penalty imposed for a range of "crimes" running from adultery and homosexuality to witchcraft and worshipping false gods.</p><p>Earlier this year, Cameron <a href="http://www.visionforum.com/news/blogs/doug/2012/03/9977/">hung out with Doug Phillips</a>, whose Vision Forum ministry has a distinctly Christian Reconstructionist air. Cameron served as a minor celebrity at Phillips’ “Christian Filmmaker's Academy” in San Antonio in February. He took the stage with Phillips, and the two enthusiastically discussed how the Pilgrims built a society based on scripture rather than sitting around waiting for some biblically prophesied end of the world.</p><p>Cameron also noted that the Pilgrims, before they left Europe, lived in “difficult times with a culture that was going down the toilet.”</p><p>“They had a king,” he said, “who had bankrupted the nation, tripled the debt, enslaving the people, declared himself in essence to be God on Earth as he sat in the church and crammed religion down the throats of the people, claiming to be a Christian.”</p><p>Hmmm.</p><p>Is Cameron still talking about the 17th century or taking a right-wing potshot at a certain prominent political figure in today’s America?</p><p>Anyway, all this is to say this: “Monumental” seems destined to be just the latest propaganda exercise by the Religious Right’s lunatic fringe. And Cameron and company want to show it not only in theaters, but also churches, schools and anywhere else they can. (In one trailer, he says, “I want this to be a movement.”)</p><p>Don’t be misled by Kirk Cameron’s charming smile. It masks a chilling agenda.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/descriptions-and-activities-religious-right-groups">Descriptions and Activities of Religious Right Groups</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/kirk-cameron">Kirk Cameron</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/monumental">Monumental</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/david-barton">David Barton</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/herb-titus">Herb Titus</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/marshall-foster">Marshall Foster</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/doug-phillips">Doug Phillips</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/christian-reconstructionism">Christian Reconstructionism</a></span></div></div>Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:02:35 +0000Joseph L. Conn6942 at http://www.au.orghttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/%E2%80%98monumental%E2%80%99-mischief-kirk-cameron%E2%80%99s-history-boys-peddle-religious#commentsSpecial Delivery: Fourteen Writers Remind Jim Wallis That The Religious Right Is A Real Problemhttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/special-delivery-fourteen-writers-remind-jim-wallis-that-the-religious
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Not all supporters of the Religious Right are theocrats who burn to base American law on a narrow understanding of the Bible. But some certainly are.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p><strong> </strong></p>
<p>There are people in this country who belong to fundamentalist Christian religious groups and who believe that they have the right (and perhaps the duty) to run your life.</p>
<p>That is a fact. These people exist. I’ll be spending some time with them this weekend at the Family Research Council’s “Values Voter Summit.”</p>
<p>It’s also a fact that some folks would like to pretend that these people don’t exist, or that they are a fringe group that can be easily dismissed. Some evangelicals are embarrassed by the antics of politically active, extreme fundamentalists, but instead of standing up to them, they’ve decided instead to criticize those of us who write about the Religious Right.</p>
<p>It’s a classic “kill the messenger” scenario.</p>
<p>Today, several writers who report on the Religious Right are issuing an <a href="http://www.au.org/media/press-releases/archives/2011/10/wallis-letter-october-2011.pdf">open letter</a> to Jim Wallis, a moderate evangelical leader who runs the group Sojourners. Wallis has criticized the Religious Right in the past, but for some reason suddenly has a problem with those of us who write about the openly theocratic wing of the Religious Right – the Christian Reconstructionists, the Dominionists, those involved in the New Apostolic Reformation.</p>
<p>Wallis and Mark Pinsky, a former religion writer at the <em>Orlando Sentinel</em>, have accused us of fomenting hysteria.</p>
<p>Our open letter sets the record straight. Those of us who write about the Religious Right are not overreacting. Nor do we, as Wallis and Pinsky seem to think, believe that all evangelicals are theocrats. Indeed, we know that the theocratic wing is a minority – but we also know that a minority can have influence far beyond its numbers.</p>
<p>Christian Reconstructionists like the late Rousas John Rushdoony laid the intellectual groundwork for today’s Religious Right. Did everyone who read Rushdoony believe, as he did, that the U.S. government must operate under the Old Testament’s legal code? No. But I’ve attended enough Religious Right meetings and have heard enough demands for “biblical law” in America to know that these people are not fans of our secular government.</p>
<p>A fringe movement did not bring tens of thousands of people to a football stadium for Gov. Rick Perry’s prayer rally in August. A fringe movement did not remove three justices from the Iowa Supreme Court in 2010 because they voted for marriage equality. A fringe movement did not mobilize and pass anti-gay amendments in more than half of the states. A fringe movement did not mobilize fundamentalist churches and their congregants to push the Republican Party far to the right on social issues. A fringe movement did not pass anti-abortion laws across the nation, intimidate public school science teachers into watering down the teaching of evolution and derail the Equal Rights Amendment.</p>
<p>The Religious Right did these things. It is a nationwide movement consisting of several large organizations backed by powerful television and radio ministries. It collects more than $1 billion annually in tax-free donations. Not all of its supporters are theocrats who burn to base American law on a narrow understanding of the Bible. But some certainly are.</p>
<p>People like Fred Clarkson, Rachel Tabachnick, Adele Stan, myself and others write about this. We believe people ought to know what’s going on. None of us believes that the United States is on the verge of becoming a Christian fundamentalist theocracy out of Margaret Atwood’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Handmaids-Tale-Everymans-Library/dp/0307264602/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1317913789&amp;sr=1-1"><em>The Handmaid’s Tale</em></a>, but we realize that what could happen (and indeed is happening) is bad enough: Your gay neighbors lose their rights. A girl who has been raped finds it difficult to get a legal abortion. Your tax money is plowed into religious schools that teach things you find offensive. A giant cross is erected in a public park. Your kid gets a lousy science education in public school.</p>
<p>We write about these things because we believe there are people out there who support church-state separation and maybe they’ll get involved in stopping the Religious Right – if they have the facts they need. So be assured that we’re not going to let two naysayers who can’t grasp what’s going on shout us down or intimidate us into silence. (In a <em>USA Today</em> <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/story/2011-09-18/evangelical-christians-republicans/50457192/1">column</a>, Pinsky says that David Barton, a man whose phony “Christian nation” claptrap is considered gospel in fundamentalist churches all over America and who helped dumb-down social studies standards in Texas, is a marginal figure. Talk about clueless!)</p>
<p>As long as I have the power to turn on a computer or pick up a pen, I’m going to keep writing about the threat the Religious Right poses to American values and freedoms. And yes, I intend to call out the theocrats when it’s necessary.</p>
<p>If Wallis, Pinsky and others think this is hysteria, well, so be it. And if some evangelicals and other religious people are embarrassed by the extremism of the Religious Right and are worried about being lumped in with them, the answer isn’t to attack Americans United for exposing the theocrats’ agenda. The answer is to join us as we work to defeat it.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/story/2011-09-18/evangelical-christians-republicans/50457192/1"><br /></a></p>
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</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/fighting-religious-right">Fighting the Religious Right</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/jim-wallis">Jim Wallis</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/mark-pinsky">Mark Pinsky</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/religious-right-0">Religious Right</a></span></div></div>Thu, 06 Oct 2011 15:26:49 +0000Rob Boston6163 at http://www.au.orghttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/special-delivery-fourteen-writers-remind-jim-wallis-that-the-religious#commentsFringe Festival: Why We Must Take ‘Dominionists’ Seriouslyhttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/fringe-festival-why-we-must-take-%E2%80%98dominionists%E2%80%99-seriously
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">We are not arguing that dominionists are going to seize power next week and send your uncle to the gulag because he’s a Unitarian.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s recent day-long prayer-and-fasting rally in Houston has led to some interesting fallout. Commentators in the media are taking an overdue look at the extreme views of the groups that sponsored “The Response.”</p>
<p>Unfortunately, some are reaching a strange conclusion: These groups are so out on the fringe that we don’t need to worry about them.</p>
<p>Many of the organizations that sponsored “The Response” are extreme, all right. They are “dominionists” – that is, they believe only Christians of their stripe have the “true” religion and they should take dominion and govern based on their (narrow) interpretation of the Bible.</p>
<p>Sure, it’s tempting to dismiss dominionists as a marginalized lunatic fringe. After all, many of them do tend to take positions that are, to be blunt, really out there. For example, they would not only outlaw abortion, they would execute any woman who gets the procedure or doctor who performs one. They would also execute gays, adulterers, blasphemers and those who hold to “false” religions.</p>
<p>Syndicated columnist Michael Gerson <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-holy-war-on-the-tea-party/2011/08/22/gIQAYRcOXJ_story.html">argues</a> that views such as this mean we don’t have take these folks seriously. He criticizes those who are sounding the alarm and writes, “Dominionism, though possessing cosmic ambitions, is a movement that could fit in a phone booth.”</p>
<p>Another approach is to insist that anyone who expresses concern about dominionism is attacking all evangelicals. <em>Washington Post</em> columnist Lisa Miller<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/dominionism-beliefs-among-conservative-christians-overblown/2011/08/17/gIQAb5eaNJ_story.html"> asserted recently</a>, “Evangelicals generally do not want to take over the world. ‘Dominionism’ is the paranoid mot du jour.”</p>
<p>Let’s clarify a couple of things here. No one is seriously arguing that all evangelicals are dominionists who yearn to take over the world. That is a classic straw-man argument, and it’s easy to blow down. Nor are we arguing that dominionists are going to seize power next week and send your uncle to the gulag because he’s a Unitarian.</p>
<p>What we’re saying is that there is a significant strain of thought in the conservative Christian community that is actively hostile to church-state separation, pluralism, secular government, modern science, women’s rights, etc. This movement has been influenced by dominionist theology. It is politically active and influential, and people need to know about it.</p>
<p>Consider the attacks on legal abortion and the spate of bills targeting that procedure in the states. Consider the ongoing effort to undermine the teaching of evolution in public schools. Consider the harsh attacks on gay people and the efforts to roll back the civil rights gains they have made. Consider the constant attempts to divert tax money from public schools and public services to private religious schools and “faith-based” social service agencies.</p>
<p>Also, remember that there was a time – not so long ago, really – when a candidate did not have to kowtow to right-wing fundamentalists to be considered a serious contender in the Republican Party.</p>
<p>How did all of this come about? It isn’t because dominionists took over. It’s because they laid the philosophical groundwork for Religious Right activism that energized millions of fundamentalist Christians. For a long time, these people believed politics was “worldly” and not their calling. When fundamentalist clergy decided to get political, the dominionists gave them the biblical basis for it.</p>
<p>Such was the birth of the Religious Right. Over the years, some Religious Right leaders have conceded that the Christian Reconstructionists, a leading school of dominionist thought, were essential to their way of thinking. They admit that movement founder Rousas J. Rushdoony and his acolytes paved the way for the merger of right-wing religion and politics that is today so common.</p>
<p>The results of this are being felt in school boards, county commissions, state legislatures and in Congress.</p>
<p>We at Americans United refuse to shut our eyes to this. We refuse to pretend that those of us who oppose the theocratic schemes of the Religious Right “just don’t get” conservative evangelicals. We are well aware that many evangelicals reject the thinking of men like Pat Robertson, James Dobson and Chuck Colson. But we are also aware that millions of others align themselves with the Religious Right agenda. They believe their crabbed interpretation of the Bible gives them the right to run other people’s lives – and we are determined to stop them.</p>
<p>Religious Right groups are fond of talking about “worldviews.” They imply that worldviews are in conflict, and they are right to a certain extent. The Religious Right has a worldview anchored in the 13th century when church and state were one. Activists in this movement continue to be at war with religious diversity, secular government, church-state separation, religious freedom, intellectual thought and much of modern life.</p>
<p>Many other Americans hold to a different worldview – one based on tolerance, religious pluralism, individual rights and the idea that our laws should not be based on religion. These two ways of looking at the world are definitely in conflict, a conflict that, in America, is increasingly reflected in the political arena.</p>
<p>Dominionists played a key role in bringing us to this point. That’s the real story that some in the media either just don’t get or willfully choose to ignore.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-holy-war-on-the-tea-party/2011/08/22/gIQAYRcOXJ_story.html"><br /></a></p>
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</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/churches-and-politics">Churches and Politics</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/fighting-religious-right">Fighting the Religious Right</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/lisa-miller">Lisa Miller</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/michael-gerson">Michael Gerson</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/rj-rushdoony-christian-reconstructionism-american-vision-gary-north-brian-godawa">R.J. Rushdoony; Christian Reconstructionism; American Vision; Gary North; Brian Godawa</a></span></div></div>Tue, 23 Aug 2011 18:25:23 +0000Rob Boston2223 at http://www.au.orghttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/fringe-festival-why-we-must-take-%E2%80%98dominionists%E2%80%99-seriously#commentsRushdoony’s Legacy: The Overlooked Influence Of A Religious Right Godfatherhttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/rushdoony%E2%80%99s-legacy-the-overlooked-influence-of-a-religious-right-godfather
<a href="/about/people/joseph-l-conn">Joseph L. Conn</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>The nuances of the Religious Right are admittedly sometimes hard to follow. But I was still surprised on Saturday morning to read a seriously misguided <em>Washington Post</em> <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/13/AR2010081306224.html?hpid=topnews">article that touched </a>on Christian Reconstructionism. As a matter of fact, I almost turned over my bowl of Cheerios.</p>
<p>Reporting on the Senate race in Nevada, <em>The Post</em>’s Amy Gardner asserted that Christian Reconstructionism, the most hardline faction of the Religious Right, is and always has been pretty much irrelevant.</p>
<p>"At its peak in the 1990s," the article said, "the Christian Reconstructionist movement was small and mostly ignored. The group's founder, R.J. Rushdoony, tried to start a political party, but it went nowhere. When Rushdoony died nine years ago, the movement dried up."</p>
<p>Most of this, of course, is quite wrong.</p>
<p>It’s true that most Religious Right activists don’t buy into all aspects of Christian Reconstructionism. Only the most hard-hearted fanatics are willing to endorse slavery or the stoning of miscreants. The Old Testament may prescribe the death penalty for adultery, as Rushdoony argued, but most Americans probably don’t want to see that penalty written into criminal law (do we, Newt?).</p>
<p>However, Rushdoony’s overarching philosophy – that secular democracy is evil and that God’s law should prevail in today’s America – became the theological and intellectual framework for early Religious Right activists.</p>
<p>When fundamentalists flocked into politics in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, they had few theorists to turn to. They had always believed politics was worldly, and true Christians should focus on converting souls, not running the government. Rushdoony insisted that God wanted them to take over society and crush the infidels (literally).</p>
<p>Robert Billings, an early Religious Right strategist, said, "If it weren’t for [Rushdoony’s] books, none of us would be here."</p>
<p>The Rushdoony influence on the Religious Right continued throughout his life. He helped birth the home-school movement that has replenished Religious Right’s ranks, and he was an early member of the Council for National Policy, the secretive meeting ground for right-wing heavy-hitters. His ideas popped up in <a href="http://reason.com/archives/1998/11/01/invitation-to-a-stoning">all sorts of places</a>, from Pat Robertson’s "700 Club" to D. James Kennedy’s Coral Ridge Ministries.</p>
<p>When Rushdoony died, the neo-con <em>Weekly Standard</em> ran a fawning tribute, hailing his impact on American life. Today, Rushdoony acolytes continue the battle on a <a href="http://www.au.org/media/church-and-state/archives/2004/06/the-adfs-recon.html">variety of fronts </a>too numerous to mention here.</p>
<p>The Georgia-based American Vision, for example, <a href="http://www.au.org/media/church-and-state/archives/2007/07/fringe-festival.html">spreads the </a>Reconstructionist <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/40318/">viewpoint</a> through a variety of mediums. Its 2007 conference, at a Southern Baptist conference center in North Carolina, drew hundreds of attendees. That same year, many PBS(!) stations ran a documentary on church and state written by Brian Godawa, a one-time movie reviewer for Rushdoony’s foundation. Reconstructionist guru (and Rushdoony son-in-law) Gary North was once a staffer for Rep. Ron Paul.</p>
<p>The mainstream media has a disconcerting habit of declaring the Religious Right dead at regular intervals. Reporters killed it off when the Moral Majority went under, and again when the Christian Coalition went into eclipse. Some have done it in recent years as James Dobson was elbowed (somewhat less than gently) into quasi-retirement.</p>
<p>The Religious Right is still here, of course. It no longer has prominent spokesmen on television such as the late Jerry Falwell, but his ideological allies operate influential political entities in Washington and the state capitals. And they are often influenced, directly or indirectly, by Reconstructionism.</p>
<p>It’s best to take these obituaries of the Religious Right with a grain of salt. So, too, the <em>Post</em> obit on Christian Reconstructionism.</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/fighting-religious-right">Fighting the Religious Right</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/rj-rushdoony-christian-reconstructionism-american-vision-gary-north-brian-godawa">R.J. Rushdoony; Christian Reconstructionism; American Vision; Gary North; Brian Godawa</a></span></div></div>Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:18:03 +0000Joseph L. Conn1616 at http://www.au.orghttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/rushdoony%E2%80%99s-legacy-the-overlooked-influence-of-a-religious-right-godfather#commentsMercenary Missionaries: Religious Right’s Move In Zimbabwe Resurrects Sorry Historyhttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/mercenary-missionaries-religious-right%E2%80%99s-move-in-zimbabwe-resurrects-sorry
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>TV preacher Pat Robertson and other Religious Right leaders have long been interested in the continent of Africa. They seem to believe that they can find a country there to serve as a laboratory for their misguided social agenda – as well as plunder any wealth the area may have.</p>
<p>It reeks of the worst form of old-style colonialism.</p>
<p>Most recently, Robertson minions have invaded Zimbabwe, a landlocked nation in southern Africa long afflicted with government corruption and poverty.</p>
<p>Sarah Posner, associate editor of the Web site "Religion Dispatches," <a href="http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/sexandgender/3056/pat_robertson%E2%80%99s_women_warriors_leading_spiritual_warfare_in_zimbabwe_/ ">reports</a> that Pastor Vicky Mpofu serves as Robertson’s point person in Zimbabwe. Aided by Jay Sekulow, head of the Robertson-founded legal group the American Center for Law and Justice, Mpofu has launched an African arm called the African Centre for Law and Justice. Sekulow’s son, Jordan, is also involved, serving as director of international operations for the American Center for Law and Justice.</p>
<p>What do Robertson and the Sekulows want in Zimbabwe?</p>
<p>The agenda may sound familiar. As Posner puts it, “[T]he African Centre for Law and Justice is injecting itself into the political process of drafting a new constitution that will supposedly pave the way for new elections. The African Centre for Law and Justice is aiming to do in Zimbabwe precisely what the religious right seeks to accomplish in the United States: declare the country a ‘Christian nation’ guided by biblical principles, outlaw abortion, and ostracize and criminalize LGBT people.”</p>
<p>Robertson and his gang have been down this road before. In the mid-1990s. Robertson became enamored of the central African nation of Zambia and its president, Frederick Chiluba. Chiluba was a guest on the “700 Club,” where he explained to an enthralled Roberson that he had officially declared his country a “Christian nation.”</p>
<p>A beaming Robertson turned to his television audience and gushed, “Wouldn’t you love to have someone like that as president of the United States of America?”</p>
<p>Soon, the loon brigade from the Christian Reconstructionist movement jump aboard. This collection of unrepentant theocrats opined that once Zambia was totally “reconstructed” – that is, converted into a fundamentalist Christian theocracy adhering to the Old Testament’s harsh legal code – it would serve as a base for retaking America.</p>
<p>Alas for them, the schemed failed. Chiluba left office in 2002 and, along with his wife, was charged with wide-scale corruption. Although Chiluba was acquitted by a Zambian court, he was <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6624547.stm">found guilty</a> of stealing $46 million in a civil case in England. Some of the money, prosecutors argued, went to pay for fancy clothes and a lavish lifestyle during a time when many Zambians lived on a dollar a day.</p>
<p>Around the same time he was lauding Chiluba, Robertson was cozying up to Mobutu Sese Seko, the dictator of Zaire (now the Congo). Robertson was so eager to get a stake in the country’s lucrative diamond trade that he unsuccessfully lobbied the U.S. government to lift its ban on the brutal and corrupt Mobutu.</p>
<p>More scandalously, Robertson <a href="http://blog.au.org/2005/09/04/this_operation_/">used airplanes</a> from his Operation Blessing charity to ferry diamond-mining equipment in and out of the country – all while claiming he was doing humanitarian work there.</p>
<p>That venture collapsed when Mobutu was overthrown in 1997. Robertson’s overtures to the Congo’s new leaders went nowhere, and in 2001 he began wooing Liberian strongman Charles Taylor in a <a href="http://www.au.org/media/press-releases/archives/1999/06/tv-preacher-robe.html">gold-mining deal </a>– despite Taylor’s known brutality and his role in the violent civil war that had racked the nation.</p>
<p>And let’s not forget what other Religious Right activists have done in Uganda. Legislators there, worked into a state of frenzy by anti-gay far-right speakers from U.S. Religious Right groups, have actually proposed legislation mandating <a href="http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Ugandan-Activist-Says-Outside-Pressure-Has-Slowed-Anti-Gay-Bill---98882249.html">the death penalty</a> for gay men and lesbians.</p>
<p>The residents of many African nations have struggled for years to cast off the legacy left by decades of imperialism and oppression. The last thing they need is to be left to the tender mercies of a band of Religious Right extremists and greedy TV preachers.</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/fighting-religious-right">Fighting the Religious Right</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/africa">Africa</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/american-center-law-and-justice-aclj">American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ)</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/jay-sekulow">Jay Sekulow</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/liberia">Liberia</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/pat-robertson">Pat Robertson</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/uganda">Uganda</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/zimbabwe">Zimbabwe</a></span></div></div>Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:13:38 +0000Rob Boston2103 at http://www.au.orghttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/mercenary-missionaries-religious-right%E2%80%99s-move-in-zimbabwe-resurrects-sorry#commentsWhale Tale: AFA Staffer Says Bible Mandates Death For SeaWorld Orcahttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/whale-tale-afa-staffer-says-bible-mandates-death-for-seaworld-orca
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">A staffer at the American Family Association wants to kill (by stoning, yet!) a 12,000-pound whale that he believes is guilty of murder </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>On Feb. 24, a tragedy occurred at SeaWorld in Orlando, Fla. A six-ton killer whale known as Tillikum <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/27/nation/la-na-seaworld-death27-2010feb27">pulled trainer</a> Dawn Brancheau underwater to her death in front of a crowd of horrified spectators watching a show.</p>
<p>Brancheau’s tragic death has led to some soul searching: What should be done with Tillikum? Is it ever appropriate to keep killer whales (also known as orcas) in captivity? Is it right to expect these animals to perform for our amusement?</p>
<p>Relatively few people are wondering what the Bible says about the matter. Luckily, the American Family Association (AFA), the Rev. Donald Wildmon’s Tupelo, Miss.-based Religious Right outfit, is on the case.</p>
<p>Bryan Fischer, the AFA’s director of issue analysis for government and public policy, is <a href="http://www.afa.net/Blogs/BlogPost.aspx?id=2147492239">seriously arguing</a> on a blog that the Bible mandates that Tillikum be put to death.</p>
<p>Fischer noted that Tillikum had killed another trainer at a Canadian aquarium in 1991 and a man who jumped into the whale’s enclosure at SeaWorld in 1999. The whale should have been killed in 1991, Fischer wrote, because the Book of Exodus requires the execution of any animal that kills a human being.</p>
<p>“If the counsel of the Judeo-Christian tradition had been followed, Tillikum would have been put out of everyone's misery back in 1991 and would not have had the opportunity to claim two more human lives,” Fischer wrote.</p>
<p>Fischer cites Exodus 21:28, which states, “If an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall surely be stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall go unpunished.”</p>
<p>“So, your animal kills somebody, your moral responsibility is to put that animal to death,” Fischer insisted. “You have no moral culpability in the death, because you didn’t know the animal was going to go postal on somebody.”</p>
<p>Furthermore, Fischer opines, because Tillikum killed more than once, his owner is now culpable and can be executed as well.</p>
<p>When a friend sent me this column a few days ago, I thought it might be a satire or maybe the work of someone trying to embarrass the AFA. Perhaps some hackers had broken into the AFA’s Web site and posted this. It’s that kooky. The AFA is extreme – but this extreme?</p>
<p>So I called Fischer to ask. He called me back promptly to confirm that he wrote the piece and it’s not intended as satire. He was cheerful and said he appreciated my checking.</p>
<p>I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Fischer is quite extreme. I heard him speak last fall at the Family Research Council’s “Values Voter Summit.” He<a href="http://www.au.org/media/church-and-state/archives/2009/10/of-piety-partisanship.html"> explained</a> to the crowd that Adolf Hitler came up with the separation of church and state and opined that states and local governments don’t have to abide by the First Amendment.</p>
<p>Fischer’s column has more than a whiff of Christian Reconstructionism about it. Reconstructionists, you might recall, insist that every jot and tittle of Old Testament law be binding on modern society. Thus, gay people, fornicators, those who worship “false gods” or anyone who engages in “witchcraft” (among other things) would merit the death penalty.</p>
<p>Sometimes people ask me why we get so worked up about the Religious Right here at Americans United. Fischer’s column, as daft as it is, is a good answer to that question. Here’s a guy who wants to kill (by stoning, yet!) a 12,000-pound whale that he believes is guilty of murder – all because of a blind adherence to his fundamentalist reading of the Bible.</p>
<p>If this is the fate that awaits Tillikum in AFA’s vision of a perfect society, what do you think is going to happen to you the next time you offend “biblical law”?</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/fighting-religious-right">Fighting the Religious Right</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/american-family-association">American Family Association</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/bryan-fischer">Bryan Fischer</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/christian-reconstruction">Christian Reconstruction</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/don-wildmon">Don Wildmon</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/seaworld">SeaWorld</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/tillikum">Tillikum</a></span></div></div>Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:47:56 +0000Rob Boston1783 at http://www.au.orghttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/whale-tale-afa-staffer-says-bible-mandates-death-for-seaworld-orca#commentsPastor Of Hate: When Religious Right Rhetoric Goes Too Farhttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/pastor-of-hate-when-religious-right-rhetoric-goes-too-far
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Religious Right leaders who claim to be &#039;mainstream&#039; cannot constantly engage in over-the-top rhetoric, hate-mongering and fear-mongering and then say they&#039;re not responsible when bands of extremists are whipped by their words into a frenzy.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>By now, many of you have heard about the preacher in Tempe, Ariz., who is praying for the death of President Barack Obama.</p>
<p>Thanks to You Tube, Pastor Steven L. Anderson of Faithful Word Baptist Church has become kind of famous. Anderson's recent "Why I Hate Barack Obama" sermon has attracted wide attention.</p>
<p>The night before an Obama speech in Phoenix, Anderson howled, "You're going to tell me that I'm supposed to pray for the socialist devil, murderer, infanticide, who wants to see young children and he wants to see babies killed through abortion and partial-birth abortion and all these different things – you're gonna tell me I'm supposed to pray for God to give him a good lunch tomorrow while he's in Phoenix, Arizona? Nope. I'm not gonna pray for his good. I'm going to pray that he dies and goes to hell."</p>
<p>Asked by liberal radio talk-show host Alan Colmes if he really wants Obama to die, Anderson said, "Absolutely. Now that doesn't mean I'm gonna kill him. But you know what? I believe he should reap what he's sown.... [Obama] deserves to die, because he's a murderer."</p>
<p>Not long after that, Anderson gave <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2009/08/31/az-pastor-brain-cancer/">another speech</a>, this time saying, "I hope that God strikes Obama with brain cancer so he can die like Ted Kennedy. You know, and I hope it happens today."</p>
<p>Spurred by Anderson's rhetoric, one of his congregants, Chris Broughton, showed up outside Obama's Phoenix event carrying an assault rifle and a handgun.</p>
<p>Anderson also blasts gay people, calling them "predators" who are "infecting our society." He has stated that God wants gays to be "taken out and killed."</p>
<p>Reflecting on all of this, longtime Religious Right researcher Fred Clarkson made an interesting point: Stuff like this doesn't happen in vacuum. Anderson is extreme and strange, but he's merely the <a href="http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/religiousright/1801/%22%5Bi%5D_pray_for_barack_obama_to_die_and_go_to_hell%E2%80%9D%3A_the_story_the_media_missed_/?page=entire">latest manifestation</a> of a long-running impulse in American religion and politics.</p>
<p>Christian Reconstructionists have for years called for the imposition of "God's law" in America. They believe in a literal application of the Old Testament's legal code and talk openly about executing gays, adulterers, fornicators, "witches," those who worship false gods and even disobedient teenagers.</p>
<p>Reconstructionists tend to publish their ideas in fat books and obtuse journals that most people don't see. When they gather for meetings, they usually look bland and non-threatening. Most people see them as cranks and write them off as a band of eccentrics with a bizarre philosophy that few take seriously.</p>
<p>The problem is, the Reconstructionists have influenced the Religious Right in ways most don't fathom. The idea that government has a duty to enforce the laws of God – which is at the end of the day the bedrock of the philosophy of the Religious Right – springs from Reconstructionism.</p>
<p>Prior to the rise of Reconstructionism, many conservative Christians believed politics was not their calling. There was another world awaiting them, they believed, and there they would enjoy God's kingdom. All they had to do on Earth was seek converts by spreading their religion through private channels and await the Second Coming.</p>
<p>Reconstructionists dismiss all that. They argue that society can be "perfected" – that is, "reconstructed" – right now. Indeed, they argue that the right type of Christians have an obligation to create a "godly" order and say Christ will not come back until society has been reordered along the proper "biblical" lines.</p>
<p>So religious liberty must go. Legal abortion must go. Gay rights must go. Evolution in the public schools must go. Salacious books and movies must go. Government institutions must be saturated with fundamentalist Christianity.</p>
<p>Sound familiar?</p>
<p>Preachers like Anderson are extreme, but in a sense they are simply taking the Reconstructionist philosophy to its logical conclusion. Theirs is not a passive Christianity. They are compelled to act.</p>
<p>We see echoes of this in people like California Pastor Wiley Drake (former second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention) who has been praying for the death of Americans United Executive Director Barry W. Lynn and others on the AU staff for years. We see it coming from Gordon James Klingenschmitt, a former Navy chaplain who also prays for the death of Lynn and some of our allies.</p>
<p>We see it when someone like James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, issues a disturbing "letter from the future" <a href="http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/election08/653/the_religious_right%E2%80%99s_apocalyptic_visions_of_an_obama_presidency_%C2%A0/">describing</a> a fascistic America under Obama in 2012 where euthanasia is common, guns are banned, public school children are given pornography, the Boy Scouts are shut down, conservative talk shows have been silenced and terrorists run amok with impunity.</p>
<p>And we see it reflected in the people who do more than pray. We see it when people shoot abortion providers and bomb women's clinics. We see it in the actions of extremists who believe they know the mind of God and that this justifies all of their actions.</p>
<p>Religious Right leaders who claim to be "mainstream" cannot constantly engage in over-the-top rhetoric, hate-mongering and fear-mongering and then say they're not responsible when bands of extremists are whipped by their words into a frenzy and begin spewing toxic venom that makes a mockery of public discourse. They cannot claim to be innocent when some unhinged types are prodded to move beyond mere words to "save" America from Religious Right-proclaimed "moral decay."</p>
<p>Pastor Anderson may be another crank looking for 15 minutes of You Tube fame. Or he could be a truly dangerous extremist who has drunk deeply from the wells of a dangerous philosophy.</p>
<p>I'd rather not find out which he is. I'd rather someone rein him in now. The logical candidates for that job are the Religious Right leaders who have so worked him up over the years.</p>
<p>Today Americans United <a href="http://www.au.org/media/press-releases/archives/2009/09/au-denounces-arizona.html">is asking</a> Religious Right leaders to publicly denounce Anderson and call him out as the extremist that he is. The sooner the better, please.</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/fighting-religious-right">Fighting the Religious Right</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/christian-reconstruction">Christian Reconstruction</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/fred-clarkson">Fred Clarkson</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/gordon-klingenschmitt">Gordon Klingenschmitt</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/president-barack-obama">President Barack Obama</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/religious-right-0">Religious Right</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/steven-l-anderson">Steven L. Anderson</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/wiley-drake">Wiley Drake</a></span></div></div>Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:44:45 +0000Rob Boston2014 at http://www.au.orghttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/pastor-of-hate-when-religious-right-rhetoric-goes-too-far#commentsChucking Democracy?: Colson Headlines Paleo-Confederate's Conference In Atlantahttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/chucking-democracy-colson-headlines-paleo-confederates-conference-in
<a href="/about/people/joseph-l-conn">Joseph L. Conn</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">&quot;I would say we&#039;re fighting in a long war, and that [the Civil War] was one battle that we lost.&quot;
–The Rev. Douglas Wilson</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Has Chuck Colson finally gone off the deep end?</p>
<p>Colson, a prominent and revered Religious Right author and theoretician, seems to have been drifting toward the edge of the flat Earth for years.</p>
<p>Colson converted to evangelical Christianity while doing time in prison for his felonious role in the Nixon-era Watergate scandal. After getting out in 1975, he founded Prison Fellowship and focused on helping inmates find God. His emphasis on rehabilitation instead of draconian punishment made him friends among progressives and enemies among the hard right.</p>
<p>But Colson quickly started to march toward fundamentalist theocracy. In recent years, he has demanded that Christians adopt a "biblical worldview" and impose their agenda across all aspects of American society. He blasts public education, reproductive choice, gay rights and church-state separation and demands a male-dominated family life.</p>
<p>During a June 2007 <a href="http://www.ethicsdaily.com/news.php?viewStory=9040">speech </a>to a Southern Baptist pastors' meeting in San Antonio, Colson said, "What is our purpose in life? It is to restore the fallen culture to the glory of God. It's to take command and dominion over every aspect of life, whether it's music, science, law, politics, communities, families – to bring Chris ­tianity to bear in every single area of life."</p>
<p>A few months later in a column for <em>Christianity Today</em>, he excoriated the faithful for being insufficiently ready to "defend Christian truth" and <a href="http://www.ctlibrary.com/ct/2007/october/36.156.html">charged that Christians</a> "worship at the altar of the bitch goddess of tolerance."</p>
<p>Now, Colson has taken an even bigger step toward the lunatic fringe. He's the <a href="http://www.accsedu.org/2009%20Annual%20Conference.ihtml?id=367212">featured speaker </a>at the June 25-27 "Building on a Firm Foundation" conference of the Association of Classical and Christian Schools (ACCS).</p>
<p>ACCS is the brainchild of the Rev. Douglas Wilson, pastor of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho. The ACCS approach to private education and homeschooling has spread across the nation in recent years. You may have heard Wilson's name because of some debates he did with atheist author Christopher Hitchens.</p>
<p>But Wilson is better known in Idaho for his advocacy of outlandish religious and political viewpoints. His "firm foundation" seems to be Christian Reconstructionism, the extreme Religious Right <a href="http://www.au.org/media/church-and-state/archives/2007/07/fringe-festival.html">theo-political movement</a> that seeks to take "dominion" over America, scrap democracy and impose biblical law.</p>
<p>Reconstructionists read the Bible literally and think the legal mandates of the Old Testament should apply today, including application of the death penalty for a range of "crimes" running from adultery and homosexuality to witchcraft and worshipping false gods.</p>
<p>In an interview with <em>Christianity Today</em>, Wilson <a href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/april/24.42.html">distanced himself</a> from the Reconstructionist label, but not the movement's harsh views.</p>
<p>Asked if he would execute gays, he replied, "You can't apply Scripture woodenly. You might exile some homosexuals, depending on the circumstances and the age of the victim. There are circumstances where I'd be in favor of execution for adultery.... I'm not proposing legislation. All I'm doing is refusing to apologize for certain parts of the Bible."</p>
<p>OK. That makes us feel better – not!</p>
<p>Wilson's biggest controversy was his co-authorship of <a href="http://southernslavery.blogspot.com/">a booklet </a>called "Southern Slavery: As It Was." The tract argues that the Bible approves of slavery and insists that slavery in the South "was a relationship based upon mutual affection and confidence."</p>
<p>The Southern Poverty Law Center called the booklet "a repulsive apologia for slavery."</p>
<p>Wilson, who refers to himself as a "paleo-Confederate," seems unrepentant, telling <em>Christianity Today</em> that he believes "the South was right on all the essential constitutional and cultural issues surrounding the war."</p>
<p>"You're not going to scare me away from the word Confederate like you just said 'Boo!'" Wilson told the magazine. "I would define a neo-Confederate as someone who thinks we are still fighting that war. Instead, I would say we're fighting in a long war, and that [the Civil War] was one battle that we lost."</p>
<p>Wilson says if fundamentalists admit the Bible's approval of slavery is outdated, their scripture-based attacks on abortion, feminism and homosexuality might be considered outdated too.</p>
<p>So let's get this straight: Colson is happily speaking at a conference whose founder and guiding light celebrates theocracy, defends slavery as biblical and expresses regret that the Confederacy lost the Civil War.</p>
<p>In 2008, President George W. Bush awarded Colson the Presidential Citizens Medal. After Colson's appearance in Atlanta, maybe he will get a medal from Confederate President Jeff Davis posthumously.</p>
<p>Wow, Chuck, you've come a long way, baby! Unfortunately, the trip has all been in the wrong direction.</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/fighting-religious-right">Fighting the Religious Right</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/association-classical-and-christian-schools">Association of Classical and Christian Schools</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/christian-reconstruction">Christian Reconstruction</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/chuck-colson">Chuck Colson</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/dominionism">Dominionism</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/douglas-wilson">Douglas Wilson</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/gay-rights">Gay Rights</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/george-w-bush">George W. Bush</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/paleo-confederate">Paleo-Confederate</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/reproductive-choice">reproductive choice</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/southern-slavery-it-was">Southern Slavery: As It Was</a></span></div></div>Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:14:41 +0000Joseph L. Conn1572 at http://www.au.orghttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/chucking-democracy-colson-headlines-paleo-confederates-conference-in#commentsPBS Punts: Ombudsman Admits Church-State Program Is Biased, But Downplays Problemhttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/pbs-punts-ombudsman-admits-church-state-program-is-biased-but-downplays
<a href="/about/people/barry-w-lynn">Barry W. Lynn</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Recently I wrote about PBS's <a href="http://blog.au.org/2007/06/08/pbs-revelation-networks-wall-of-separation-has-religious-right-genesis/">decision to carry a Religious Right </a>pseudo-documentary attacking the concept of church-state separation.</p>
<p>PBS's ombudsman, Michael Getler, devoted <a href="http://www.pbs.org/ombudsman/2007/06/is_that_churchstate_wall_just_a_metaphor.html">a column to the controversy on June 15</a>.</p>
<p>There is good news and bad news. Getler admits that the show, "The Wall of Separation," is clearly slanted toward opponents of the church-state wall.</p>
<p>The bad news is he defends its airing anyway.</p>
<p>Getler writes, "The interviews in the film, in terms of time on screen and numbers, seemed to me to tilt clearly in favor of those who see a danger in the "wall of separation" metaphor used by Jefferson...." He points out that the narrator "time and again, conveys the theme of this film – that God is the necessary foundation of society's law and government." Getler even calls the treatment a "heavy-handed hammering away by the narrator."</p>
<p>Getler goes off the rails when he tries to defend the program. "My sense," he writes, "is that people can take from this film whatever they wish. It can be a useful reminder of the context of our founding documents and a way of looking at that context – and at the intent of the framers of the First Amendment as assessed in the dominant view of this film – that challenges the more common view....Or it can be viewed as sophisticated propaganda, as some critics already have...."</p>
<p>Although I have not seen the program yet – PBS declined to share a copy with us -- the reviews I have read, and Getler's own perspective, only confirms my view that PBS was hoodwinked into airing Religious Right propaganda. The broadcast outlet is now desperately trying to cover its tracks by pretending that airing something this misleading is somehow part of its mandate to cover all points of view.</p>
<p>What Getler fails to grasp is that the perspective offered in this film has been debunked. Getler notes that during the film, the narrator says, "The United States is a society based on the rule of law. And our Founding Fathers believed that if they did not base their laws on a higher authority, then whoever was in power would determine what the law said. They called this 'tyranny.' Their higher authority was the Law of God – the Ten Commandments."</p>
<p>Legal historians have researched this issue time and again. They found no references to the Ten Commandments during the debate over the Constitution. Furthermore, there is no reference to "higher authority" or "the Law of God" in the Constitution, a wholly secular document.</p>
<p>Getler mentions the film's director and writer, Brian Godawa, merely in passing. As I made clear in two letters to PBS, Godawa is a militant theocrat with close ties to Christian Reconstructionism, the most extreme faction of the Religious Right. He and his allies believe that Christians of his stripe should take control, not only of the government, but of all aspects of society – including the entertainment industry.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, Godawa took part in the "Issachar Project," a gathering of activists in Orange County, Calif., that, according to one organizer, is intended to bring about "a Christianization of the movie industry." Godawa's previous credits include a stint as movie reviewer for the Chalcedon Foundation, a Christian Reconstructionist outfit that advocates the death penalty for homosexuals, adulterers, fornicators, witches, incorrigible juvenile delinquents and those who spread false religions.</p>
<p>Godawa's PBS film – I will not dignify it with the term "documentary" – is part of the Religious Right's ongoing strategy to rewrite American history and portray church-state separation, a principle that is one of our nation's greatest contributions to governance and liberty, as somehow unhistorical and dangerous.</p>
<p>Godawa is free to make whatever films he likes. But it is a shame that PBS, which has a reputation for broadcasting many fine programs, has allowed itself to be used as a channel for the distribution of material designed not to educate but misinform. This program fell way short of the high standards normally adhered to by PBS. What's next – giving the creationists equal time on "Nova"?</p>
<p>At a bare minimum, PBS should label Godawa's program as viewpoint and let stations and viewers know the radical religious-political perspective he's pushing.</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/fighting-religious-right">Fighting the Religious Right</a></span></div></div>Tue, 19 Jun 2007 16:42:32 +0000Barry W. Lynn1026 at http://www.au.orghttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/pbs-punts-ombudsman-admits-church-state-program-is-biased-but-downplays#commentsPBS Revelation: Network's 'Wall Of Separation' Has Religious Right Genesishttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/pbs-revelation-networks-wall-of-separation-has-religious-right-genesis
<a href="/about/people/barry-w-lynn">Barry W. Lynn</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>I like PBS. I really do. So I'm deeply troubled about a church-state program being <a href="http://pressroom.pbs.org/programs/wall_of_separation/wall_of_separation_rls.doc/index_html">rolled out on the network</a> this month.</p>
<p>"The Wall of Separation" is a production of Boulevard Pictures, a California outfit that describes itself as "a motion picture production company committed to bringing moviegoers high-quality stories from the world's most innovative filmmakers—films that bring hope, inspire us to the good, and that show us what the human spirit can attain."</p>
<p>But there seems to be more there than meets the eye. </p>
<p>Promotional material for the program at the <a href="http://www.blvdpictures.com/coming_soon/wall_of_separation.php">Boulevard Web site</a> suggests that it promotes a radically revisionist view of church and state.</p>
<p>"The Wall of Separation is a metaphor deeply embedded in the American consciousness," the company observes. "Most of us take for granted the idea that politics and religion should not be intermixed because of the heritage of The First Amendment in our understanding of freedom of religion. The No Establishment Clause has protected us from the entanglement of religion with government, and the Free Exercise Clause has secured the right for all faiths to engage in their religious practices without interference from the state. America is a religiously pluralistic culture guided by a secular government."</p>
<p>That sounds pretty good. But then the Boulevard promo takes a troubling turn.</p>
<p> "...[W]hat would surprise most Americans," it asserts, "is the discovery that this is not what the Founding Fathers of our country intended when they established our nation and wrote the Constitution and Bill of Rights. They in fact had a radically different definition of establishment and the role of religion in state and federal governments than we do today. So radical, in fact, that some say the modern understanding of the role of religion in the public square is exactly the opposite of what the Founders intended."</p>
<p>So Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and others among the nation's founders didn't intend a "religiously pluralistic culture guided by a secular government"? That's totally wrong and very much in keeping with the Religious Right's spin on America's founding.</p>
<p>We at Americans United did a little research on Boulevard Pictures, and here's what we found. Although the Web site for the film company mentions no religious or political agenda, its president is Jack Hafer, an evangelical Christian who told one interviewer that Christians have an obligation to "shape the culture" and "spread the faith." He urged Christian young people to go into the arts as "kingdom-spreaders" and as "a form of missionary service."</p>
<p>That doesn't sound too bad. Christians have a right to proselytize. But I don't usually expect to see proselytism on PBS.</p>
<p>And then there's Brian Godawa, the writer and director of "The Wall of Separation," who is an even more interesting character. Godawa did movie reviews for a time for the Chalcedon Foundation's Web site. Those of you who follow religion and politics will recognize Chalcedon as the nerve center of Christian Reconstructionism, the most militant wing of the Religious Right. Godawa also was a featured speaker at the American Vision's "2006 Worldview Super Conference," a Reconstructionist event.</p>
<p>Reconstructionists detest democracy and hope to usher in a fundamentalist Christian theocracy in America based on their reading of biblical law. They are best known for seeking to impose the harshest penalties of the Old Testament penal code: the death penalty, for example, for gays, adulterers, fornicators, witches, incorrigible teenagers and those who spread false religions. </p>
<p>I don't know if Godawa calls himself a Reconstructionist – his reviews have been removed from Chalcedon's Web site -- but his perspective is definitely pretty far out. </p>
<p>His Chalcedon review of the critically acclaimed movie, "Brokeback Mountain," calls it "a brilliant piece of subversive homosexual propaganda." By depicting gay men as "manly" instead of "fey queens," he said, "It's the normalization of the freakish minority." He charged that "homosexualism" is "an ideology and religion whose goal is to overthrow the Christian paradigm of morality." </p>
<p>Godawa added, "Society SHOULD suppress immoral behavior and it does so on many fronts. So if homosexualism is immoral, then yes, it should be suppressed, just like child molesting, its ugly step-brother hidden in the closet, just like adultery, just like promiscuity."</p>
<p>Tell us what you really think, Brian!</p>
<p>Godawa praised Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" and urged Christians to see the movie in droves in the first two weeks – "Don't go by yourself, get a group of friends. And don't go just once, go twice."-- so other studios would "sit up and take notice." </p>
<p>He dismissed criticism of the film's anti-Semitic undercurrent. "[T]he accusations are vacuous," he said. "In fact, they are more revealing of the attackers' state of the heart than the filmaker's work of art." He blasted as "slanderous" the criticism from Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League that the film unambiguously portrays Jewish authorities and the Jewish mob as responsible for the decision to crucify of Jesus. </p>
<p>"Foxman, and others like him, appear to be more concerned about cultivating their own preconceived cultural history than historical accuracy. Damn the facts, full speed ahead. Imagine the Jewish activist outrage that would occur if an Egyptian leader said about the film 'The Ten Commandments,' 'The film unambiguously portrays Egyptian authorities and the Egyptian mob as the ones responsible for the decision to enslave Jews.' Well, if the sandal fits." (Godawa later says the Romans were responsible too.)</p>
<p>I wish I could say PBS had the wool pulled over its eyes about this, but I can't. I wrote to officials there about our concerns March 16, 2006, and got a letter back six days later saying "The Wall of Separation" is "neither currently distributed by PBS, nor have we received a proposal from Gummshoe Productions to consider it for distribution." (Gummshoe was the name Shafer and Godawa were operating under back then.)</p>
<p>When Godawa continued to tell fans that PBS was going to distribute the program, I wrote to PBS again. My March 30, 2007, letter asked again what's going on.</p>
<p>This time, the news wasn't so good. In an April 18 response, PBS Vice President John F. Wilson conceded that the program "was submitted, reviewed and accepted for distribution through PBS Plus, a service that provides stations with programs they may schedule locally to supplement the PBS primetime national schedule."</p>
<p>Wilson defended the decision to promote the program as serving "our mandate to present a diversity of viewpoints on issues of public importance." He said the PBS letter denying involvement came before "Wall of Separation" had been submitted to PBS. </p>
<p>Maybe so. But Godawa had been crowing about PBS involvement with the project long before the 2006 PBS letter to us. If he knew they were going to pick the program up, why didn't they know it?</p>
<p>The "diversity of viewpoints" argument doesn't wash either. This project smacks of covert Religious Right propaganda, not a forthright contribution to the national dialogue. </p>
<p>None of us at Americans United has seen "The Wall of Separation;" PBS declined to share a copy with us. So we can't say for sure that it's all bad. But many signs indicate that it may be an intentionally warped and inaccurate view of the role of religion in our nation's founding. </p>
<p>Ironically, the program apparently includes clips of interviews with me and distinguished constitutional law professor Erwin Chemerinsky. Chemerinsky and I are featured on the Boulevard Web site's trailer. (Comments from ACLU President Nadine Strossen are reportedly on the program, too.) Since we haven't seen "The Wall of Separation," we aren't sure of the source of the clips or their context. (I do lots of interviews with would-be documentarians.) </p>
<p>But this makes it all the more imperative that civil liberties advocates not regard the "The Wall of Separation" as something endorsed by me and other church-state separationists. </p>
<p>PBS, I'm afraid you've let me down. I'll still watch "Teletubbies," but it just won't be the same.</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/fighting-religious-right">Fighting the Religious Right</a></span></div></div>Fri, 08 Jun 2007 18:01:23 +0000Barry W. Lynn1025 at http://www.au.orghttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/pbs-revelation-networks-wall-of-separation-has-religious-right-genesis#comments